Re: [DML] Re: Cruise control?

["Ryan Wright" <ryanpwright@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 8/4/07, DMCVIN6683 <dmcvin6683@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>  The cruise control does not pull on the throttle enough to pull the
>  cable loose. I had my car on jackstands in 5th gear at 2000rpm and
>  this is almost 55mph. I had a friend hit the brakes and let the car
>  slow down and then re-engage the cruise at all different rpm's and
>  the cruise never pulled hard enough to pull the spool where the
>  throttle cable could come loose.

It's not so much a matter of pulling hard, but rather a matter of
binding up with the existing cable. Of course I know of absolutely
zero cases where this has actually happened, but I did do some testing
and it is a possibility.

Note that it IS possible to unwind the stock throttle cable off the
spool, and cruise control could potentially contribute to this. You
can test this by simply playing with the spool. Turn the thing as far
as it will go (wide open throttle - do all your playing with the
engine off, ok?) and you'll see the stock throttle cable unwind, since
nobody is actually pushing on the gas. If you disturb the cable, you
can see there is enough slack there that it could slip off the spool
and get caught. Now there are all manner of little metal pieces
sticking off the spool that should prevent this, but the possibility
still exists.

Add in the cruise control pulling from around the spool and, in my
opinion, you have a potential for trouble. Is it a big potential? Not
really, quite honestly I think it's infinitely small.

Still, I mounted my cruise control on the back side of the spool for
several reasons:

1. It was easier this way.
2. I was able to use existing holes / mounting points on the body so I
could remove the system and leave no trace that it ever existed, if I
so wanted to.
3. Zero potential for the cruise cable to interfere with the stock cable.
4. In this configuration, it is impossible for the cruise to pull wide
open throttle. Due to the angle of the mount it is only capable of
pulling about 75% throttle. This is a good thing for several reasons -
first, it makes it impossible for the stock cable to unwind enough to
slip off or get caught up on something. You really have to pull WOT
for this to even be a possibility. Second, if the cruise module were
to freak out for some reason, the amount of acceleration it could
provide would be smaller, thus giving me more time to shift into
neutral and turn the engine off.

The cruise pulling on the gas pedal bit is a neat idea, even more so
because the pedal will move back and forth like a more modern cruise
control system does. But I did not want a cruise control box mounted
in my trunk, didn't want to drill holes in the body to route the
cable, and didn't want some funky cable looped around my gas pedal and
potentially interfering with normal, non-cruise driving. Perhaps these
are non-issues, I don't know, haven't seen the way it was mounted but
I did consider this option and didn't see a way (or wasn't creative
enough to figure it out) to do this as cleanly as the installation I
wound up using. I do like the gas pedal moving with the cruise bit
that this style of installation offers, though.

-Ryan


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